As Thyagraj Indoor Stadium readies itself to host the 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championship, players representing 14 countries were seen giving finishing touches to their skills.
Their skills which will be put to test in next six days starts from Sunday. The Indian team despite being learned to have an easier draw for both the men’s team and women’s team, sweated it out with all players joining the practice session.
The men’s team has veteran Achantha Sharath Kamal, mercurial Anthony Amalraj, national champion and 2012 london Olympian Soumyajit Ghosh, Sanil Shetty and Harmeet Desai are seeded number two after Singapore and in the first stage they are clubbed alongside South Africa and Australia while the women’s team which include Kumaresan Shamini, Madhurika Patkar, Mouma Das and Neha Agarwal, is seeded number three after Singapore and England respectively and will compete against Canada and Sri lanka in the initial stage.
“Irrespective of the draw, we are top three seeded sides. And with this draw, the initial rounds should be easy. Next round will be difficult although as of now we don’t know whom we will play,” head coach of the Indian team, Bhawani Mukherjee told The Pioneer on Saturday.
Barring home support, another factor which should give comfort to Indians is absence of some top players like Singapore’s Gao Ning who is two-time defending champion and English top-ranked duo - liam Pitchford and Paul Drinkhall.
Kamal, who had finished second in singles of 2009 edition, will defend his doubles title partnering with Subhajit Saha.
Overall, India will aim for bagging more medals than the total of seven which they had won in the previous edition of the Commonwealth Championships which were held in Glasgow, Scotland.